jchancE: "REKMEISTER is an up-and-coming talent with a lot of motivation"

Fragadelphia 19 represented a big opportunity for Chicken Coop to earn some VRS points, and the team made the most of that opportunity.

Caleb "jchancE" Davis told Dust2.us that the team's goal was to reach top eight and playoffs, which they accomplished via an overtime victory against Tsunami and a dominant win over Zomblers.

While they ultimately lost to M80 in playoffs, they earned the fourth most VRS points of the teams in attendance, and had the second highest jump in the global rankings, with event winners KOLESIE getting the highest jump.

During Stage One of Fragadelphia 19, jchancE sploke to Dust2.us' Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey "Mnmzzz" Moore after Chicken Coop's upset win over Marsborne and the recent roster change.

The complete interview can be found below on YouTube, with key snippets underneath. The questions and answers were slightly edited for clarity and length.

The game went the distance, but what an upset over Marsborne! How are you feeling after that series?

It feels great. We obviously knew going into it that we were the underdogs and that all the pressure was on them. We know that we have the ability to beat them, and knowing that people think they’re the favorite, we just went in with the mindset that all the pressure is on them.

What do you think went wrong for them and what do you think went right for you in the series?

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what it is. I just think our communication was on point. I don’t know exactly what was going on on their comms, I only know what happened on our side. We definitely did a good job of splitting up the map and applying pressure everywhere on Train, and on Overpass we just had the endurance [to close out].

How did you feel about letting Overpass through? Did you feel prepared for the map?

We knew it was possible, but we didn’t think they would [let it through] to be honest. I think both of us obviously have some work we could do on Overpass. It was just a really scrappy game, we didn’t have anything really prepared, we just knew a few ‘nades and tried our best. I like Overpass as a map though, it’s a welcome change.

You’ve been around longer and have had more experience on Overpass than some of your teammates. Were you able to give them any pointers at all?

Yeah when the update came out we just went over a few ‘nades, and that was really it. We didn’t really go over any setups or anything, so it was mostly just on-the-fly play and communication.

The big decision before this LAN was to replace Grave with REKMEISTER. Can you talk me through that change?

Yeah, Kevin [Grave] is a great friend and a good dude. He’s kind of been thinking about quitting for the past few seasons, and he’s just lacking a little bit of motivation. REKMEISTER is more of an up-and-coming talent and he has a lot of motivation and I think it helps our teams. So that’s why we made the move. No hard feelings towards Kevin, we’re still great friends and he’s still a sub for us still, and he’s doing whatever he wants in his life. I definitely think that REKMEISTER is a good addition.